A MUM who has endured a lifetime of suffering due to birth defects says her mother died ‘wracked with guilt’ over a controversial pregnancy testing drug.

Nichola Walton has long claimed that Primodos, a drug that her mother Maria Farrell was given, is responsible for the life-threatening congenital health issues she suffers.

A new report published last week suggests that the drug can cause deformities — just a few months after a ‘shambolic’ Government-commissioned report concluded scientific evidence ‘does not support a causal association’ between the use of hormone pregnancy tests (HPTs) and birth defects.

Ms Walton’s mum was one of an estimated 1.5 million women given the drug between 1953 and 1975 and worked for years to discover the truth about its effects.

She died of pancreatic cancer in November at the age of 68 and Ms Walton, from Little Lever, says justice must be delivered for the other mothers given the drug before it is too late.

The 46-year-old, who has three children and two grand-children, said: “My mum was so strong. She told me before she died that she had lived wracked with guilt for more than 40 years because of what had happened. She kept crying and saying sorry, but it was not her fault.

“It really hurt me that she felt that way. It is so frustrating now that she fought for so long and never got to see justice in her lifetime.

“There are so many families out there who have lived with that same guilt and I don’t know how it has taken so long to get to this point.

“Mum was so proud when she first saw my story in the paper and the campaign on the TV. If she was still here then I know that she would be proud of us, but frustrated that it has taken so long.

“I feel sorry for all of the mothers. I have suffered throughout my life with the effects, but it must have been awful for my mum when I was born.

“I had my first operation when I was 10 days old, and another when I was 16 days old. I finally came home at 16 weeks and my mum was just told to pray.”

Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi campaigned on behalf of Ms Walton, whose medical conditions include spinal defects and a hole in the heart.

The MP, who is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests, says the newly published research from Dr Neil Vargesson should trigger a full public inquiry.

His study found that components of the controversial drug caused deformations to fish embryos just hours after they received a dose.

Ms Qureshi said: “The publication of Dr Vargesson’s research finally proves what myself and families have been campaigning on for so many years. Primodos caused children to be born with deformities. Families have been denied answers and justice for over 40 years.

“This research should have been an integral part of the Government’s Expert Working Group review that was published in October last year.

“Instead it was disregarded as non-peer reviewed and unpublished, despite 44 other non-peer reviewed studies being included.

“We now need the Government to withdraw this shambolic report and set up a full independent public inquiry that looks into all of the evidence and then asks the question, why did the Government ignore initial warnings of the dangers and take eight years to withdraw the drug?

“What worries me most is that the components of Primodos are still used in medication today, the Government needs to take note and fund further research into their safety.”

Ms Walton added: “The outcome of the last review was a big blow for us, I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t look at what it should have or what they said it would.

"Now it seems like the truth is coming out, after so many families have gone so long without justice. I want action as soon as possible. Victims are dying. How many more people have to die without getting justice?

“After Thalidomide, they said there would never be another scandal like it again. But it did happen again on a massive scale. This drug was given to 1.5 million women.”

Marie Lyon, chairman of the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, welcomed the latest study, adding that the campaign group had ‘no confidence’ in the Commission on Human Medicines report published last year.

Dr Vargesson said evidence of whether or not Primodos caused birth defects remains ‘inconclusive’, but the matter deserves more research.

He added: “What this study highlights is that there is a lot still to be learned about Primodos and more widely its components effects on mammals.

“Our experiments with the zebrafish embryos shows quite clearly the effects the Primodos components have.

“This does not mean it would do the same in humans of course, we are a long way from saying that but we need to carry out more research into these components because they are still in drugs today and in some cases in much higher doses than those found in Primodos.”

Dr June Raine, director of vigilance and risk management of medicines at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said: “Patient safety is our highest priority and the safety and effectiveness of all available medicines is kept under constant review.

"As new data comes to light, action is taken as appropriate to make sure the benefits of medications outweigh the risks.”

She added: “The expert working group of the Commission on Human Medicines conducted a comprehensive independent scientific review of all available evidence including this then-unpublished scientific study and their overall conclusion was that the available scientific evidence, taking all aspects into consideration, did not support a causal association between the use of hormone pregnancy tests such as Primodos during early pregnancy and birth defects or miscarriage.

“The expert working group made a number of future-facing recommendations and our focus is now on implementing these. While the review cannot take away from the very real suffering experienced by the families involved, it helps shape the path to further strengthen the scientific evidence which supports safety monitoring of medicines in pregnancy.”